Hello, I'm Bonny Snowdon, ex-corporate person and mother turned successful artist entrepreneur. It wasn't that long ago though that I lacked the confidence, vision, and support network to focus on growing my dream business. Fast forward past many life curve balls, waves of self-doubt, and so many lessons learned. And you'll see Ignite my thriving online coloured pencil artist community, a community that changes members' lives for the better, and gives me freedom to live abundantly whilst doing what I love and spending quality time with my beloved family and dogs, all whilst creating my best artwork with coloured pencils and mentoring others to do the same. But this life wasn't always how it was for me. It used to only exist in my imagination. I've created the, It's A Bonny Old Life podcast to help increase people's confidence,share mine and my community's experience, and hope through fascinating personal stories, champion the other amazing humans in my personal, professional, and membership community, and create another channel through which I can support others to realize their dreams.
If you're a passionate coloured pencil artist or an aspiring one who's looking to create their best work and a joyful life you love, you are in the right place. Grab a cuppa and a custard cream. Let's get cracking.
As usual, May has been another really busy month, my Camargue Horses done on a whim as a practice piece for a very special event happening next year. My trip to Amsterdam with my sister to see Esther Hicks. What an incredible weekend. That was our new addition to the family. Mirry,
a six month old Maine Coon, has come to join us and has settled in really, really well, happily milling around with the dogs and making us all laugh. And that's just a snapshot, really, of my month, honestly. I sometimes wonder how I fit everything in.
Well, gosh, May what? Another month that's absolutely flown by. So many things have happened this month.
Again, my life seems to be a whirlwind. I've actually written down quite a few bits and pieces so that I can remember what I've done. I think a couple of the biggest things this month we welcomed in a new member of the family, which was, which was sad because we, we lost our old girl, Peggy, our, our lovely old ragdoll cat.
She became just too poorly, really. And we, we sort of made the decision to say goodbye to her, which was incredibly sad. And then ended up with an opportunity to get a a six month old Maine Coon, which has been actually, it's, she'll never ever replace Peggy, but she's definitely sort of filled a, you know, kind of filled a hole.
And she's, honestly, we've had Peggy for however many years, and this lovely cat who's called Mirry, she's kind of come in to our lives and she's crazy. She's absolutely bonkers. She loves water, she loves flying around, she loves climbing up stuff. She loves hanging off really high places. She's not scared of the dogs at all. And she's just made a,
a really, really lovely addition to our family, which is super. So, yeah, so we, we now have mi and she's particularly beautiful, so I've been taking lots and lots of photographs. So hopefully there will be a tutorial coming up of a, she's a silver, a silver tabby Maine Coon. She, she's really beautiful. She looks a little bit like Mrs.
Mrs. Norris from Harry Potter. So, yeah, so, so she's, she's been a big thing that's happened for us in May. The other thing I've, I've, I've made two very big decisions for some future events that are coming up, which again, is incredibly exciting. I can't kind of, I can't kind of reveal the details or anything just yet,
but really, really exciting stuff. One of them, I did a practice piece for, just show you, so here we go, cam horses. I thought that if this is what I'm gonna have gonna be doing next year at one of these particularly exciting, adventurous events, then I'd better, a better practice, I'd better practice my water. Cause I've never drawn water before.
I was like, oh, flipping. And it was over that really long bank holiday, you know, the one where we had the Friday and the Monday. So it's a really, really long bang holiday and I just started a Labrador. I was waiting for somebody to come back to me with a, a piece for a commission. And I was like,
what should I draw? What should I draw? Oh, I've got some pieces that have to do in, in September. So I started this Labrador and I literally got literally round half an eye, I think I put a bit of dark seat here in, and I was like, I'm gonna draw Camargue horses. I just, I dunno, I just had this flash of inspiration.
So I got the, I got the image from Dreams Time. It's a paid for image and, and literally sat for the whole weekend and just drew, I cannot remember the last time. I love every single drawing that I do, but I cannot remember the last time I felt so inspired. And so I felt so amazing when I was drawing. I absolutely loved it.
And I lit, I literally drew for about 10 hours a day, and I'd finished it, I think by the, by the Monday evening, or by the Tuesday I, I'd, I'd finish this drawing. It's not huge. And what's lovely about this is that it's sold before I even started to put color on the paper, it's sold at Line Art stage.
And, and the other amazing thing is that the, the proceeds that this has made, all of the proceeds that this has made has been donated to IDAs and their, I think it was their big give this last week, I think it's give to give to kind or something like that, is to do with the Mental Health Awareness Week. So all of the proceeds from this have gone to IDAs,
which is incredible. And I'm, I feel so grateful that I can do that. I feel really, really grateful that I can, you know, I, I'm now in a position where I can give to charity. I I love that, you know? So yeah. So this really exciting piece, and this is the prelude to something very exciting happening next year in the south of France.
And oh God, I've been working on, on that this month. Oh, honestly, I'm really giddy about it. It can be amazing. So yeah, so that's, that's one thing that we're doing. The other thing that we, that I've been doing this month as well, is looking at my first in-person event. Again, incredibly exciting. This is something completely different.
So I, I dunno of anybody else who's done this, and it's something that I've had in my head for ages. I, I've got a vision in my head and I'm like, oh, it's gonna be like this and it's gonna be like this, and we're gonna do this and we're gonna do this. And I've been speaking to an events company who are gonna help me put all of this together.
And I'm just so excited about it. I can't tell you. I think I can't, I I think we're gonna be announcing it in July, I think once we've got everything sorted and we know exactly what we're doing. But that is a very, very exciting, a very exciting project. Honestly, I can't, I can't, I just can't. You,
you, I'm the sort of person that I'm, I I, I've never been very good at praising myself for, for, you know, for doing what I do. And I'll do something and then I've done it, and then I'm like, right, what's next? What's next? What's next? And I have ideas coming out of my ears, literally,
and I have to work on something that really excites me and that keeps me motivated and keeps me going, you know, because running a business is, is hard. Even when you've got a fantastic team around you, it's hard, you know, there are things that happen in your life that that, that it's, it's tricky. So to have something to really,
really look forward to is, is amazing. So I'm, I'm so excited about that. Now then, what else have we got? Oh, I was a, I was a live panelist for Stu McLaren. I dunno whether, I'm sure I've spoken about him before. Stu McLaren is a Canadian entrepreneur. He basically is the membership guy, and I joined his tribe back in 2021.
I'm very big on self-development, so I'm always buying courses. I've just bought another course from a guy called Colin Bradley, and it's about weaving your, weaving your story into your sort of your, your marketing and your selling and everything. And, you know, it's, it's, it's funny, isn't it? I think everybody has a different idea of,
you know, if you, if you run a business, whatever business it is, whether it's art or you know, whatever, we all have a different idea about what we're gonna be doing. And for me, I want to, my business is important to me. I'm incredibly passionate about my business and I'm really proud of what I've done and you know how my business is going,
and I'm always looking to bring my marketing up a notch. I've had to do a lot of learning and, and do things a lot differently to how I used to do things with marketing, because the world is changing. And if I have things that I want to do and I want to take my business places, then I have to make changes to how I do stuff.
So, you know, following people who are those industry experts who can help me, you know, make my business better, help me with my marketing so that it comes a a across better. That's always a, I think that's always a really good thing. Anyway, so I was, I was a a, a panelist for Stu McLaren, which was really,
it was fabulous actually. I was on with a few other people and we were ju just talking about when we first launched our, our memberships. Basically, Stu McLaren teaches people how to run a membership, and he's absolutely amazing and he's such a nice man. And you feel like you're kind of part of, I feel like I'm part of the, the family and I've met some,
the most amazing people, arty people, you know, people who are, who have got art businesses different to mine, but still in that art space. And it's so nice to be able to talk to and work with people who, who understand, you know, the, the, the joys and the, and the challenges and everything that come with running a,
you know, an online business. So yeah, so I, I did that, which was, which was exciting. Me being me, of course, I I was like, it was like, right, two o'clock, gotta get in there. So I'm there, and I, there I was at two o'clock, no, it wasn't two o'clock at all,
it was three o'clock. So I've gone in at the wrong time. I was like, oh, for goodness sake, he said, I always get, I, I always think I'm really good at getting my time zones. And then I end up with, is it British summertime? Is it Greenwich meantime? What is it? So I'm always, usually an hour early.
But anyway, so that was, that was really, really fun. We've had, we've had another amazing business drop-in this month as well. Charlie, Andrew, my brother-in-law, the guy who coached me and helped me when I first started my business, he came in and did another incredible session for us all about branding. And it was brilliant. It was absolutely brilliant.
He's so charismatic and he, he comes across so, so, so well, and for me, what's lovely is that I can introduce people to my community that can give such a lot of value and, and put things in front of them that they, they would never, you know, have the opportunity to have. And the same with the same with Susie Susie Pearl.
So she did a, a confidence session for me in April. She's doing another one in June and then another one in July. And it's being able to give my community that opportunity. It's incredible. And what's amazing is that with Susie, we have kind of, not, not teamed together because I'm not actually going to be part of it, but she has offered my community some group sessions.
So if you don't know who Susie is, she is the most incredible author Ted talker coach. She is the woman who helped me get back on track back in 2021 when I thought I was okay. And, and I really wasn't. I'd done what an awful lot of people do, and I pushed all of my trauma and rubbish, I'd just pushed it to the back of my mind.
And I tried to hide it. And I tried to, I tried to make out to myself that, sorry, I've got a bit of hair. I've had this bit of hair in over the top of my nose all day and I can't, I can't reach it. But she is the person who helped me, who recognized that there was something that I needed to talk about and gave me the space to be able to talk about stuff and to sort it out.
And she is the most amazing woman. The most amazing woman. And what's amazing is that she has given us the opportunity or given me the opportunity to share with my community and allow people to come and have some small group sessions with her. And that's something that actually I think is, is available now. There's four sessions that you can book onto and you have an hour with Susie and you get to kind of talk about stuff that you,
you know, you might be mindset stuff. It might be, you know, you, you might have something specific that you want to talk about. And it's specific to the groups. And they're not sessions that are going to be shared out to everybody. They're very, it's a closed group. And you know, if you do, if you are going through a bit something at the moment,
or you are, you do need a little bit of help with mindset or you've, you know, you've kind of got to a point and you're a little bit stuck, if you can get on one of these Susie Sessions, you are gonna have your mind blown. And you are gonna be so unstuck. You won't be able to see yourself coming. If you can get onto one of these sessions,
you know, if you want a little bit of help, I would highly, highly recommend it. Susie is amazing. She's amazing. She, she, I can't tell you how amazing she is. I, I couldn't talk about stuff. I physically could not talk about things. I would try and talk about something and my throat would literally close and my voice would go and I would start coughing and I could not get the words out that I,
I wanted to say that I needed to say. And Suzy has enabled me to talk about the things that I needed to talk about, the things that were really important to get out, the things that enabled me to get on with the rest of my life, to be able to grow my business, to be able to become, you know, successful.
She, she enabled me to do that. Yes, I had to put a lot of work in, but she was the person who allowed me the space, asked the pertinent questions, got me talking about things that I, I didn't want to talk about and I was scared to talk about. And it was in so, so, so important and then gave me the strength to talk about it more in the public eye.
Again. So important to talk about, you know, the domestic violence, all of that kind of thing. It's so important to talk about it because so many people go through it and so many people don't have the courage or are too scared to talk about it. And, and I, I understand why so many people are so scared to talk about it because they have people on the other side who,
who are, you know, telling them they shouldn't be talking about it. That they shouldn't have a voice, that they should keep quiet about it. And that's not right. And Susie has enabled me to talk about that and, and I've, I owe her so, so, so much. I'm incredibly grateful to have found Susie and to have her in my life.
So if you, if you do want a session and they are limited, grab one because they are so, oh my goodness, you honestly, you won't believe it. You'll absolutely love it. So the Susie Sessions, I've done quite a lot of commissions this month as well. I've got quite a few commissions coming through. My books are opening in July and I'll be taking commissions for 2024 and 2025.
I'm taking the limited amount of commissions this next time and from my wait list, you know, so the reason I'm taking limited commissions is that I want to do a lot of my own stuff. I have lots and lots of pieces that I want to do and I just don't have the time to do. And it's important for me. I think when I did my,
the horses, the Camargue horses, it really brought it home to me that the reason I still adore my art and can't wait to get to my drawing board every day is because I'm, I'm drawing things that I love to draw. Not all of the, well, I love every single drawing I do, but I ha I do pieces from me. I see,
I see photographs that inspire. I'll maybe see or think about something that inspires me and then try and find something that works for me. That's really, really important for me as an artist because it, it means that I keep the motivation up. It means that I keep my love of drawing up. I don't think in the, is it six years I've been a,
a full-time artist. I, I don't think I've ever once not wanted to draw, lost my mojo, had artist block anything like that. And I think because I'm, I'm quite, I do a lot of work mentally. So I, I have coaching sessions regularly to help me with, with, you know, things outside of my art. Just normal everyday stuff.
And I think because I work on pieces that I really, really love and that, you know, just make my heart sing, honestly, those horses, they were just like, ugh. I, I was just sitting, I was like, I can't go to bed. I've just gotta keep going. I've gotta keep going, you know? So,
and that's why I want to take, I don't wanna stop doing commissions cause I love my commission work, but I'm gonna take on fewer so that I can do a lot of work that I love as well. And of course my tutorials. I've got some amazing tutorials coming up. I'm about to start a, a human, another human one, which I'm really excited about.
This one has got background, it's got texture. I might have talked about it before, but it's, yeah, can't wait to get started on that. I'm drawing a little golden retriever puppy at the moment, which is lovely. And I've just done a couple of horses and I've got another couple of horses to come. So I've got, I've got pieces coming outta my ears,
which is fabulous. And I, I love every single minute of it, which is great. So yeah, so that's, that's kind of a, I can't remember what else I've got going on. Just the, the normal, the normal stuff we're drawing the, the Zebra in Art Club, which we're really, really enjoying. Oh, I, I,
oh gosh, went to Amsterdam. Oh my goodness. So went to Amsterdam last weekend with my sister and she's agreed to do a podcast with me. My sisters agreed to do a podcast with me, which I can't wait to do. We went to see Esther Hicks and Abraham, the law of attraction, and we had the most incredible time. It was,
it was amazing. It was amazing. I, I almost put myself onto the cruise in Greece. It was that amazing. It was fantastic. The venue was amazing. It was this old gas tower, big round gas tower lasers and blue lighting and screens and 3000 people there all filled with joy basically. And the most amazing coffee that was in these big things.
And it was just the most incredible weekend we set off. Oh, well it didn't set off very well. And I was, I was trying to work out what the universe was trying to tell me as I woke up on the Friday morning at three o'clock in the morning. Cause we, our flight was at six 20 past six, and so we had to get there a couple of hours early.
So I thought, right. Wake up at three quick shower, get dressed, my sister will be here. Off we go. Leaves Branford airports only 25 minutes away. Got up Dora, one of the dogs had been violently ill all over the floor in the bedroom. Apologies about this. So there's me in, in my pants trying to clean all of this mess up.
No, no time for a shower or anything. My sister got here half past three. And I, I was dressed, I was very sweaty, I'd managed to clean all of the floor and everything up. So that was fine. I was like, oh my goodness, nightmare. And I was like, oh, didn't have any makeup on, no nothing.
And we literally just jumped in my car off, we went to the airport. And to be honest, I didn't wear any makeup all week. I don't like wearing makeup cuz it makes me, gives me headaches. And, and I didn't wear any wake makeup all weekend and it didn't matter at all. And I was so happy cause I didn't have any headaches.
It was really nice. Anyway, so we got on the flight. My sister hadn't flown, she's 47, she hadn't flown since she was 13, so she was, she thought she was gonna be nervous, but loved every minute of it. She was like looking at the clouds and everything. Oh, we had the most fantastic time. And, and she,
when we, when we flew over there, we flew with KLM and they gave us a coconut macaroon on the way over. And Heidi doesn't like coconut. So I had two coconut macaroons and they were really good. And we got there straight into a taxi, straight to this place. And we were, we were allowed in three hours before it started and just standing in the queue with all of these people.
And they were so nice. And we were chatting and it was really great. And then we were sitting in the, in the, in this venue and five, about a minute before she was due to come on, this music starts and people started singing. And I turned to Heidi and I went, oh my God, she's got a song. And it was very easy.
The words were very easy. It was, I can do it and fill your heart with joy. So we were just singing along and dancing into this thing. And then Esther comes on and there's this like, you know, roar and everybody's cheering and everything and, and then she invites people up to, to ask a question and then she answers in what Abraham Abraham answers in his own,
in incredible way. Abraham is, is channeled through Esther. And it was just amazing, honestly. It was just amazing. We were just sitting there going, oh my god, crying. And oh, it was just the most fantastic weekend, fantastic weekend. We got back to the airport on the Saturday. We had a, an overnight stay. We got Uber,
Uber Eats and we got a kfc. When I got home, my mom was like, oh, did you go out to any nice place? Right? No, we went to the hotel, we had Uber Eats and we had kfc and it was amazing. Then we just laid, laid on the bed watching TikTok and we got back to the airport and we were like,
oh gosh, we had to get some, you know, Stroop waffles. Stroop waffles. Somebody told me how to say it, and I'm sure that's not it, but we had to buy Stroop waffles. So we got three packs each and we're like, oh, I can't wait to have these, blah, blah, blah. Got to leads, Bradford we're standing in the queue for passport control.
And I was like, oh, where are the street waffles? And Heidi just went, we're on the air airplane still. We'd forgotten them. So some air stewardess will have, will have got a lot of street waffles, which was, which was a bit sad, but I mean, you know, but we had the most fantastic weekend. Really,
really amazing weekend. And it just, it reminded me that I have to live my life just loving stuff, not worrying about or not not being, I don't need to look at nasty stuff. I don't need to involve myself with negative stuff. I just need to walk out of my back door and just, that's my life. That is real life.
It's, it's, you know, sunshine, it's blue skies, it is rain, it's rainbows, it's, I I don't have to immerse myself in anything other than that. And I love that. So we have the most incredible weekend. Yeah. So that's, that's kind of been it really. Another, another real whirlwind of a month. I don't even know what I've got going on next month.
I've got a workshop, I've got this tutorial, I've got all sorts of stuff, videos to create, et cetera. But yeah, but for the time being basically new cat cam horses, Esther Hicks and, and, and, and yeah, the dog being poorly on the floor, that's basically sums up my May. So thanks, thanks all for, for listening to me waffling on as usual. And, and I'll see you all very soon.
I really hope you enjoyed listening to this episode of my, It's A Bonny Old Life podcast. If you did, I'd be so grateful to you for emailing me or texting a link to the show or sharing it on social media with those you know, who might like it too.
My mission with this podcast is all about sharing mine and my community's experience and hope by telling your fascinating personal stories, championing the other amazing humans in my personal, professional, and membership community. And to create another channel through which I can support you to realize your coloured pencil and life dreams. If you haven't done so yet, please help me on my mission to spread positivity and joy throughout the Coloured pencil world by following me on my socials at Bonny Snowdon Academy or by getting on my list at BonnySnowdonAcademy.com.
And remember, I truly believe if I can live the life of my dreams doing what I love, then you can too. We just need to keep championing and supporting each other along the way in order to make it happen. Till next time,
